220 KEY. CANON MACCULLOCH^ D.D._, ON THE DESCENT 



etc., the Babylonian of Ishtar, and the similar myths and folk- 

 tales from all parts of the world. To such myths, but especially 

 to that of Orpheus and to the Orphic teaching in general, the 

 doctrines of the Descent and release have been traced.* But in 

 these myths one person only is rescued, and the descent is made 

 by a living not by a dead person. In the Buddhist and Hindu 

 descent myths there is greater likeness to the Eescue doctrine, but 

 were they known to the circles of Palestinian Christians at an 

 early date ? Perhaps they or the Orphic myths influenced later 

 forms of the Descent tradition, e.g., in Nicoclemus. In that the 

 episodes of the glorious light in Hades and the cessation of trouble 

 there resemble similar incidents in these Eastern myths. But 

 may they not be natural attempts to amplify imaginatively the 

 current doctrine ? The episode of the light is referred to the 

 prophecy, " the people that sat in darkness have seen a great 

 light," and this sufficiently accounts for it. The other would 

 easily be suggested in a story of release from a place of pain. 

 We do not know the exact date of the Eastern stories, and 

 borrowing might have taken place from "West by East. And 

 here again Jewish beliefs may quite well have been the founda- 

 tion for the idea of the release. 



Jewish Apocalyptic adherents associated the coming of God's 

 kingdom with the binding and destruction of Beliar, the redemp- 

 tion of the righteous from his captivity, and their entrance to 

 Paradise or to the bliss of God's kingdom, sometimes through the 

 Messiah.t This may have been transferred to Christ's Descent when 

 Apocalyptic views were seen to have been mistaken. In other 

 passages we see how easily the release idea might suggest itself 

 in connection with the Descent. In the Slavonic Book of Enoch 

 Adam and the forefathers are to be led to Paradise by angels 

 without incurring judgment, an idea which may have given 

 a hint for that of Christ's taking them there.J In Jalkut 

 Shimeoni the righteous appeal to God for the godless Israelites 

 in hell, and are bidden to go thither, to stand on their ashes 

 and ask grace for them. Then their ashes stand upright and they 

 pass to eternal life.§ It was also a common Jewish belief that 

 the captives would be ultimately released from hell, by Messiah or 



* See Gardner, Exploratio Evangelica^ 272-3. 



t Test. Ticelve Patriarchs^ Zeb. ix, 8 ; Asher vii, 3 j Dan. v, 11, 12 j 

 Levi xviii, 10, 11. 



t Slav. Enoch^ xlii, 5. 

 § Weber, 343. 



